TextExpander

Thanks to Smile and TextExpander for sponsoring BrettTerpstra.com this week! As you probably know by now, this is one of my all time favorite Mac utilities, and I can’t imagine working on Mac and iOS without it.

TextExpander allows you to create snippets of text (formatted or plain) and images that you can expand in any app on your Mac or iOS device. You can condense repetitive email replies, signatures, and anything else you type more than once into a few keystrokes.

Increase consistency by creating snippets for common email responses. Make a snippet for your meeting notes template so that nothing gets left out. Use a snippet when requesting a reference to improve your hiring process.

On your Mac, TextExpander can keep track of things you type repeatedly, and suggest creating snippets for them. It makes the process almost automatic. It even tracks how much time you save by not typing the same thing over and over again, and you’ll be amazed by the numbers after just a short period of time.

You can also customize stock replies by adding fill-in fields and popups to provide a human touch. This allows you to create standard snippets but include variable sections that you can edit after you trigger the snippet, but before TextExpander inserts the text.

Use your snippets on your iPhone and iPad with TextExpander touch and the TextExpander custom keyboard. Sync your snippets using Dropbox or iCloud.